Josh recaps Season 5 Episode 12 of Arrow, titled Bratva, where the team works to track down General Walker, who seems to have made his way to Mother Russia. Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
Team Arrow Heads to Russia
So, this week on Arrow, Oliver seems to have been “courting” Susan for a while, and is “taking things slow” according to her, which she seems disappointed about. Susan is also trying to get some information out of DA Chase regarding Billy. I really am not a fan of her.
Meanwhile, Team Arrow has been trying to figure out the status of General Walker, and it looks like he is headed to Russia to find a buyer for his nuke that he has stolen. So Oliver decides it’s about time for a return visit for himself, and will be bringing some friends along. Diggle insists on coming given his vendetta, and Felicity wants to prevent another nuclear disaster, so she is in too.
When the team hits Russia, Oliver says he has a friend who can help him out, and behold, Anatoly is there to great Oliver!…with a punch to the face. Not quite what Oliver was expecting? Apparently Anatoly owed that to Oliver, and tells Oliver to go home.
After setting up a temporary base, Oliver tries one more time to get some help from Anatoly. Despite the charm of Diggle, who Anatoly declares is his new favorite American, Anatoly is basically not going to help without a bit of help from Oliver first.
At their makeshift base, Felicity is trying to figure out a way to find Walker, when Dinah provides some insight. Figuring that Walker is a creature of habit, she recommends that Felicity try to find out what kind of burner phone Walker used in the past, and figure out what network it would be on in Russia. Then she figures out that one of the carrier’s executives is in the data she got last episode, so she has some data to use as leverage of the blackmailing kind.
Felicity, Rory and Curtis then get all gussied up, and pay a visit to a party that this executive is in attendance to. After some gentle arm-twisting, she is able to get some information on Walker’s location.
Getting this info has Team Arrow attempting to take down Walker, which doesn’t go as planned. Dinah is able to secure a hostage though. Oliver plans to try to get some information out of this guy, but Diggle isn’t happy with the slow progress, and thinks some physical harm is the way to get him to talk. Oliver tries to tell him that this is not the way they should handle this.
Other people are not really happy with how things are being handled either. Rory is not really feeling good about the blackmailing they did for the location of Walker. Rory tries to tell Felicity they need to use their power for good.
Oliver comes in, but before much can be told to Oliver about what is going on, the team discover Diggle is pounding the hostage they have, trying to get some information out of him. Oliver calms Diggle down, then decides he has to make a deal with Anatoly in order to get the information he needs.
Oliver takes Dinah on his mission given by Anatoly. Basically Oliver has to shut down an arms dealer, which he does quite easily with the help of Dinah.
The Team then has some heart to heart talks, with Oliver saying he wants to be the one to get his hands dirty, and he wants his team to be the one to help him rise above the things he feels he has to do sometimes.
Then we get the confrontation with Walker again. The team jumps into action, taking down Walker’s henchmen. Meanwhile, Diggle gets Walker in his crosshairs. Despite Walker egging him on to kill him, Diggle opts to take Walker alive. Things aren’t over though. The nuclear bomb has activated. Felicity tries some of her hacker magic to stop the bomb, but the bad news is she winds up speeding up the countdown. Rory comes up with a plan, one that Felicity is not a fan of though. Rory is going to use his “rags” to wrap the bomb up, and absorb the explosion.
Everyone evacuates the area, except for Rory, who begins wrapping the bomb. The bomb goes off, and going back to see how Rory is, he seems to be fine. Unfortunately the rags are not though, and their powers seemed to have been lost. The team celebrates their victory with Anatoly and some glasses of vodka. Diggle tries to tell Oliver that he and Felicity aren’t any better than Oliver.
Rene and Quentin Bond
Back in Star City, Quentin has been preparing for his interview with Susan, which seems like a bad idea given that he is recently “back on the wagon”. But the good news? Rene is staying behind to prep Quentin for his interview. This sounds like a great plan right?
Rene’s “helpfulness” turns into getting really hostile with Lance, and Lance gets offended right away. Rene reacts saying that these are the questions Susan is going to ask, and he is just trying to help. Eventually the two work things out though, and Quentin understands Susan is probably not going to let him off easy.
We also learn a bit about Rene’s past. Rene tells Quentin about the time a cop, him, caught him tagging. He talks about how Quentin gave him a pep talk rather than taking him into custody. Rene says this put him on a better path. Quentin questions this given Rene’s dishonorable discharge from the military. Rene’s response to this is, “nobody’s perfect.”
Team Arrow Returns Home
Finally, Team Arrow has returned from Russia. Oliver and Susan decided its time to “get it on.” She seems to want to know more about his tattoos and such, but Oliver plays it quiet for now.
We also see that Rory is taking some time off from Team Arrow given his super-rag suit is no longer working, but promises Felicity he will return eventually.
Then finally, we see that there is more to Susan than just being interested in Oliver as a lover. She has received some photos of the Arrow in Russia, and seems to be piecing together Oliver’s secret identity, it would seem.
Flashbacks
The flashbacks this week dealt primarily with Talia continuing to train Oliver, and dealing with Anatoly this episode.
His Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 12: Bratva
On this episode of Arrow, my hatred of Susan returned. Prior to this I thought maybe, just maybe she was a “misunderstood” reporter who just needed someone to love, but I could tell how she was prying about Oliver’s tattoos that she was fishing for information. Then we see her with the leaked information regarding an Arrow in Russia that she seems to think is Oliver Queen. Argh! Now the question is what are her motives? It could simply be to break an amazingly big story for ratings, or she could have more sinister things in mind. It is hard to say right now, but I am curious to see how this plays out. When it comes down to her deciding to break the story, will she have a change of heart because of her feelings? Will she use this information for blackmailing Oliver? Or will she simply just release the story and screw over Oliver? There are quite a few possibilities and I wonder how it will all play out.
The theme of this episode seemed to revolve around how much should the good guys bend the rules for the greater good. We had Felicity trying to use her hacker powers for blackmailing a bystander to get information to stop Walker, and we had Diggle pounding people to a pulp to get the same information. We also had Oliver take on a mission he wasn’t thrilled about, with a secret organization in order to get this information.
It seems that Diggle might have learned his lesson on this, but Felicity is still digging down the rabbit hole given her hacker friend she made last episode still being in contact. Oliver, meanwhile, seems relatively okay with getting his hands dirty, so long as the rest of his team doesn’t have to do it.
Now that the General Walker story seems to be wrapped up, I am hoping we get back to dealing with Prometheus. I want to know who is under that mask! We will have to see if this progresses next episode.
Her Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 12: Bratva
Anyone noticing a pattern about Oliver and Russia? Namely that every time he goes to Russia, he sleeps with a woman he probably shouldn’t. Last time it was Isabel Rochev, this time it was Susan Williams. Okay, so he slept with Susan after get got back from Russia, but all the same, it seems like Russia has a bad influence on Oliver. I’m very disappointed in Oliver for continuing his relationship with Susan and taking things with her as far as he has. So I was wrong about that booty call when he went over to her place and they were making out on the couch, but things have gone that way now. And we’ve also seen that she can’t be trusted, the way she is digging for information on him being Green Arrow. Admittedly, it might turn out that she ends up not actually doing anything with that information, but it doesn’t reflect well on her at this point.
Anyway, it looks like Rory has lost his powers. Where does this leave him in regards to the Arrow Team? Will he find another way to be part of the team, as Curtis has? I don’t know, but I think it’s time to get back to the Prometheus storyline!
Scenes from Arrow, Season 5 Episode 13: Spectre of the Gun
Preview of Season 5 Episode 13 of Arrow
